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NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES: BASS PRO SHOPS NRA NIGHT RACEAugust 21, 2016Chris BuescherBristol, Tennessee THE MODERATOR: We're joined by you are fifth‑place finisher, Chris Buescher, driver of the No. 34 Love's Travel Stops Food for Front Row Motorsports. This is Chris's second top‑5 finish of the season and he is now 13 points ahead of 30th now in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Congratulations on a great run. Talk about your race tonight. CHRIS BUESCHER: Yeah, glad we finally got it in. It's a pretty awesome weekend for our Love's Fusion. We started off the weekend on the right foot. We've had speed off the truck. We've been hanging in there. My runs in late practice were not fun. I felt like I was all over the place, and we got to qualifying and we had really good speed. Our best qualifying effort of the year. We started the race last night, got shuffled back a little bit on the start, had some ideas that we were going to change when we got to the competition caution, and we got, I guess, fortunate we had a lot of time to sit down in the trailer and talk with Bob and the whole team just about what we were going to do when that competition caution came out, whatever happened it ended up being today. But once we started adjusting on it, we definitely started heading in the right direction. Our Ford was awesome on long runs. We'd fire off about two or three laps it would take to get rolling, and it was tough for those couple, and then we were able to move around. We were still able to go to the bottom and pass there later in runs, which I thought was really good. I felt good about our car. We came really similar to where we left off the spring race at Bristol. We had really good speed there that time, and it carried over pretty well even with the changes on the track and the VHT and rosin sprayed down. I was really happy with it. I think the track changes made for some great racing. I don't think it's a dominant bottom groove, but it gave us options, and it gave us somewhere to go to pass lapped cars. It gave us a line to run for restarts. No longer were you doomed to be on the bottom like we were last time here. Top still rolled pretty good on that initial jam‑up, but a different way of restarts playing out for sure than the last time here. That was fun. I told the guys, that's the most fun I've had since Kentucky earlier this year, so I'm proud of the effort they've put in. I know it's tough to sit around here all day. Pretty awesome for the tons of fans that did stick around and hung out with us. I know that was pretty miserable just watching them sit up there in the rain last night. Happy a lot of them stuck it out and stuck around to watch us put on a show. It was a blast. Glad we pulled it off. Now we're looking at the next couple to go do more of the same thing. Q. Chris, I think like five laps to go maybe you're battling right on Austin's bumper and they're telling you, hey, you're clear, go get him if you can, if you want to try something try it basically. At that point knowing how important every point is, do you kind of think, okay, if I do and I screw up, we could throw all this away, or do you think it's as important as it is, if I can get to him, I need to try to get by him? CHRIS BUESCHER: I wasn't planning on messing up if I got next to him. You know, it was one of those things where we could catch him and then mess up a corner and get a little bit of gap, and then we got back to him there. I think the 19 and someone else was behind us, and they were within a couple car lengths, so I didn't want to go to the bottom and give those two cars a chance to pass us and lose two points that easily. So I wanted to make sure that we had more time. I was pretty focused ahead. I never looked in the mirror the last run and was just pretty much waiting on DK to tell me that we had a little bit of wiggle room, that we could go out there and try something, and it didn't come until about five to go, like you said, and we got to his bumper and we could roll up to him in the center and got off a little better, but at that point in the run we were just a little bit too far on tires to make the pass work on the bottom. I meant to go one lap earlier, and next thing they white flag it and that happened to be the lap I was planning on going to the bottom. I missed it a little bit. My timing was a little off. If the start‑finish line would have been on the backstretch, we would've been in good shape, but not the case. It was fun, though. It was a good race. I've raced with Austin a lot, all the way back to legends cars days and some ARCA stuff and plenty of XFINITY. We've always been able to race each other clean. We never touched before those last 20, 30 laps, however many it was, and it was fun to be right there with him trying to get that one extra point. Q. Chris, a few weeks ago you accomplished the hardest part about getting into the Chase with the win at Pocono, and with this fifth‑place finish here at Bristol, you now sit 13 points ahead of David Ragan and 30th in points. I know Bristol is pretty much its own unique animal and not really similar to any other track other than Dover, but what does a finish like this say about maybe your chances of possibly doing more than just making the Chase and possibly going beyond the first round? CHRIS BUESCHER: It was a pretty big day for us. We've had really strong days at the track. We've had a lot of bad luck. Obviously at Pocono we had some really good luck. It's been a roller coaster ride of a season, and because of that, we're having a talk about racing for that top‑30 place in points. And I know everybody can say the same thing. Everybody can pick out a handful of races and say if it weren't for those they'd be in a lot different situation, and I guess I'm focused on what ours were. But nonetheless, where we are right now, our last several months we've been showing up with a lot of speed. We've had some races this year that we've been really good, and some of the racetracks that we're going to go to in the Chase, some of the mile‑and‑a‑half stuff has been really good for us, the worn‑out racetrack, the older asphalt, Atlanta, Fontana, Darlington is my favorite track. It's not in the Chase, so we'll see what plays out there. But I think it'll be good to help get us in the Chase a little bit more comfortably. You know, from my standpoint and Front Row Motorsports has been working extremely hard, and we've been sharing all we can to try and find speed each and every weekend. Bristol was good for us in the spring. We had really good speed here, and I was happy with that. They one‑upped themselves. They came here with an even better piece, and we stayed out of the accidents. We played it smart today, ran against the fence but with a buffer to make sure we didn't get up in the marbles, didn't cut a tire down, didn't push sheet metal in on a tire. Anything that could go wrong we avoided other than me sliding a little bit, a little bit close to the inside wall on a pit stop. For the most part, a mistake free day that led to a really good run, but we had the speed to be able to pull it off with it. I mean, we were able to move forward every restart, and that was a lot of fun. Q. You've often expressed your dislike for points racing; these next few races you need good finishes, but I guess what you need most of all is not to have bad finishes. Can you work that balance of not being too aggressive and wrecking early and still trying to get the points finish you need to keep your spot? CHRIS BUESCHER: Yeah, I think in the grand scheme of things, we're always coming to the racetrack to try and win and not make mistakes and get the best finish possible. You can still be aggressive, try and get all you can. If you mess up a little bit and you lose a couple spots, so be it. If you wreck a race car, it ruins your day, and ultimately it'll ruin your points situation. You know, just because of points being where they're at doesn't mean we have to go and just focus on that aspect. We came to Bristol knowing that we had speed, that we love this racetrack, and it was a good chance for us to go out and have an awesome run, and that's exactly what we were able to do. Points will fall however they will. You can't focus on them too much because you lose sight of what the main goal is, and that's to go out and win races. Trying to get to that point, we were competitive here at Bristol. We weren't quite a winning car, but we were every bit of a top‑5 car and should have been a little bit better there at the end. Could have been a little bit better there at the end. We've got to be aware of it, but we're still going to be aggressive with our racing style. We're not here just to lay over and be conservative. We're going out for good finishes to stretch that points to be comfortable at Richmond. Q. Along those lines, you guys should have more horsepower than the BK Racing cars, and that would come into play most at Michigan and Darlington. How nice is it to have a little bit of a buffer and to maybe kind of gain points on a day where you've seen the BK Racing cars have some good days? CHRIS BUESCHER: We look at the next couple racetracks, and obviously Roush Yates horsepower is always awesome. They're always extremely reliable, and we're able to get to the finish every time. We'll be looking ahead. Horsepower is always going to be a big part of it, but we've won a lot of races going to the track intentionally 40 horsepower down to be able to hook up for forward bite. At the same time, like you said, Michigan is a big one, extremely large aero track, as well, and that's really important. We had good speed there earlier this year. I'm excited to get back there, consider it a home track for Ford. Always a little bit added pressure there from that side of things, but going there to stretch the points lead. That's a place where we can definitely gain a little bit and at least keep even. I'm excited for that one. Darlington is my favorite track that we go to. I absolutely love that place. Bristol is in my top three, so hopefully it all works out and that translates to another good run there. Q. How much has Ford performance picked up its involvement with your team over the past month to two months to help you get to where you are now? CHRIS BUESCHER: The great thing is Ford Performance has been committed from the start. They've gone through a lot of changes in the last little bit, and they've been all in. They made it very clear at the beginning of the season talking with everybody over there that we're out here to win a championship and to get wins and run up front, and that's the goal for every Ford out there on the racetrack. We come to these next handful of races, and obviously we have a really good shot at making the Chase now. We're working hard to utilize every resource available now and make sure that we take advantage of it to make sure that we make the Chase because that's‑‑ ultimately that's a step in the direction of a championship. Like Ricky was saying, from the Ford camp side, we know we've got a little bit of work to do yet, and we all know who's been dominant at all these tracks this year, and we're working to get ahead of that group. As we look at these‑‑ the rest of the year, I mean, it's not just to the Chase, we've got to work all the way through Homestead to keep improving to make sure that we're in a good spot to try and win championships, win more races, and definitely be ready for next year to give it everything we've got to be more competitive from the very start of the season. Q. Chris, you've talked about Darlington, Michigan, your feelings about Bristol, but what about Richmond because that's the final race before the Chase starts? CHRIS BUESCHER: I left that one out on purpose. (Laughing). I guess Richmond has got to grow on me a little bit still. For whatever reason, that one has been tough on me always. It's just always been a tough racetrack. I'm excited that we have figured out some stuff in the past nine, 10 weeks that has translated over to a lot of different racetracks, and I think it's definitely something that will translate over to Richmond, as well, so that gives me a good confidence boost that we'll be able to go there with something better than we had the first race. It's a different kind of racetrack. I know a couple of the drivers have kind of hinted that this VHT and this style of adding grip to a racetrack might be something we could look at for other racetracks. But from my standpoint, the Richmond race, we were all the way at the top, all the way at the bottom. It's a fun racetrack, I've just got to run better there. We look at these‑‑ the two coming up, we'll make sure that we can stretch out all we can get to give us a little buffer at Richmond, but I expect to be competitive at Richmond this time around. What we've learned over the past several months has picked up huge at every racetrack we've been able to go to, and I don't expect Richmond to be any different. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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